Greater Fairfield 2019-2020

As an agent of intra-community cooperation and collaboration, the C.H. Booth Library proposes to geographically expand its successful Newtown program to neighboring communities. This will include outreach and public education to communities in greater Fairfield County concerning the Research Program AoU and health information literacy using resources available from the NIH via the mobile kiosk funded by the 2018-2019 AoU program. The primary goal of this project is to assist in the delivery of improved health information to the Fairfield County municipalities that neighbor Newtown, focusing primarily on 92, youth, and 89 and their caregivers. Funding will provide for an outreach coordinator to present programs both in Newtown and in nearby communities e.g., Southbury, Brookfield, Bethel, Monroe, etc and reach into 98 centers e.g., Danbury, Waterbury, Bridgeport. The mobile kiosk will continue to be deployed at the library as a display and also used for outreach efforts by a project staffer to teach the public about health information resources and raise health literacy levels via small group sessions. Outreach will initially target 50 outreach events and draw approximately 600 individual consumers. The projects primary aims are to broaden access to and awareness of health information resources, with an emphasis on those resources related to AoU, resources provided by the NLM, and to increase health literacy for the 125, especially for those interested in optimal health and wellness.